Family finds a giant spider in their home and leave it in peace: after 1 year, it is now one of the family

by Mark Bennett

May 12, 2022

Family finds a giant spider in their home and leave it in peace: after 1 year, it is now one of the family
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There are people who would run away in the presence of a spider of any size, without thinking twice, and then there are those families, like that of the Grays, who allow a giant spider to live undisturbed in their home. This happened in Australia - and where else? - a country where people's deepest creepy-crawly nightmares can become reality: snakes, scorpions, giant spiders and many other type of "monstrous" animal and insects, always seem to be just around the corner in this land.

A "huntsman" spider (Heteropoda maxima) turned up at the house Summer Stolarcyk is living in (Summer is living with the Gray family). The huntsman is an Australian arachnid known for getting particularly large and being very fast in its hunting movements. Many, seeing this hairy arachnid, would run away screaming, but this family has decided to give it a name and host the spider in their home.

via Twitter / Summer Stolarcyk

Of course, there are some people who decide to keep unusual pets, such as snakes, other reptiles, amphibians and, in fact, even spiders - but most take the precaution of having the creature in a glass display case which serves as its home. Furthermore, these are usually always species raised in captivity and not caught in the wild. The presence of a giant spider in a house, on the other hand, is not strictly linked to the desire to have the creature as a pet. Yet, this Australian family decided not to kill the spider (or chase it away) and even give it a name: Charlotte, as it appears to be female. In a tweet that went viral, the situation is described as follows:

Summer wrote: "Her name is Charlotte, (and she is a hunter spider) and is now a welcome member of the Gray family in Australia. Charlotte loves going from room to room eating insects and other things. PS: she's still growing. You too could welcome one of these 8-legged guests".

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Wikimedia / Not the actual photo

Wikimedia / Not the actual photo

Needless to say, many followers were terrified and horrified by the presence of a giant spider in the photos. The comments, many ironic, were not slow in coming: "Oh no, now I'll have to buy a new house and buy everything new and from scratch. These all belong to Charlotte now", or even "When people ask me why I left Australia. … this is exactly why. You don't know what real fear is until you wake up at 4am and one of these 8-legged monsters is staring at you from the ceiling. "

Yet this family even named the animal "Charlotte" to make the monster arachnid seem more "genial and friendly", as the children in the house were initially very frightened of it. It has been a year since Charlotted moved into the house and, since then, not only has the spider grown quite a lot, but has now become part of the family.

Do you like these "8-legged angels"?

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